Neo Delhi: urban mediations in an era of neoliberal globalization

Abstract

This dissertation is a study of the role ideologies play in constructing new urban spaces. In an era of intensified global interaction, cities are increasingly positioned as sites for managing and mediating processes of economic production and exchange. For recently "liberalized" economies like India, cities carry the additional burden of showcasing the desirability of "emerging markets" for global capitalist incorporation, so that urban mediation becomes a means for rearticulating the image and identity of the postcolonial city and nation. My dissertation studies the complex and ambiguous ways in which urban space and postcolonial identity are mutually transformed in practices of urban mediation, where new lines of social inclusion/exclusion and spatial division pose critical political and ethical challenges to postcolonial democratic life. I use India's National Capital Region of Delhi, and in particular the satellite city of Gurgaon, as a case-study.